The Fly (1986 film)
The Fly is a 1986 American science fiction horror film directed and co-written by David Cronenberg. Produced by Brooksfilms and distributed by 20th Century Fox, the film stars Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis and John Getz. It is based loosely on George Langelaan's 1957 short story of the same name, which also formed the basis for the 1958 film. The score was composed by Howard Shore and the make-up effects were created by Chris Walas, who, along with makeup artist Stephan Dupuis, won the Academy Award for Best Makeup. Plot Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum), a brilliant but eccentric scientist, meets Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis), a journalist for Particle magazine, at a meet-the-press event held by Bartok Science Industries, the company that provides funding for Brundle's work. Seth takes Veronica back to the warehouse that serves him as both home and laboratory, and shows her a project that will change the world: a set of "Telepods" that allows instantaneous teleportation of an object from one pod to another. Brundle convinces Veronica to keep the project's existence quiet in exchange for exclusive rights to the story, and she begins to document his work. Although the Telepods can transport inanimate objects, they do not work properly on living things, as is demonstrated when a live baboon is turned inside-out during an experiment. Seth and Veronica soon begin a romantic relationship, and their first sexual encounter provides inspiration for Seth, who reprograms the Telepod computer to cope with living creatures. Shortly thereafter, he successfully teleports a second baboon with no apparent harm. Flushed with this success, Seth wants to spend a romantic evening with Veronica, but she abruptly departs before they can celebrate. Seth's judgment soon becomes impaired by alcohol and his paranoid fear that Veronica is secretly rekindling her relationship with her editor and former lover, Stathis Borans (John Getz). In reality, Veronica has left to confront Borans about a veiled threat, spurred by his romantic jealousy of Brundle, to publish the Telepod story without her consent. Drunk, angry, and jealous, Seth hastily decides to teleport himself in Veronica's absence, unaware that a common housefly has slipped inside the transmitter pod with him. Brundle emerges from the receiving pod, seemingly normal. Seth and Veronica reconcile, and, shortly after his teleportation, Seth begins to exhibit what at first appear to be beneficial effects of the process, such as increased strength, stamina, and sexual potency. He believes this to be a result of the teleportation process "purifying" his body. Veronica, however, is more concerned about Seth's growing mania, as well as the strange, bristly hairs growing out of a previously sustained wound in his back. Brundle quickly becomes arrogant and violent, insisting that the teleportation process is like a beneficial drug, and tries to force Veronica to undergo teleportation. When she refuses, he abandons her to indulge in a barroom armwrestling match, which leaves his opponent with a compound fracture, and casual sex with a woman named Tawny (Joy Boushel), whom he picks up at the bar. Veronica's next-morning arrival at the lab spares Tawny from being forcibly teleported by Brundle. He angrily throws Veronica out and dismisses her concerns about his health, but when his fingernails begin falling off he realizes that something went horribly wrong during his teleportation. He checks his computer's records, and discovers that the Telepod computer, confused by the presence of two separate life-forms in the sending pod, merged him with the fly at the molecular-genetic level. Over the next four weeks, Brundle continues to deteriorate, losing various body parts and becoming progressively less human in appearance. He eventually reaches out to Veronica, and theorizes that he is slowly becoming a hybrid creature that is neither human nor insect (which Seth begins referring to as "Brundlefly"). Brundle soon starts to exhibit fly-like characteristics, such as vomiting digestive enzymes onto his food in order to dissolve it, and the ability to cling to walls and ceilings. He also realizes that he is losing his human reason and compassion, and that he is now being driven by primitive impulses he cannot control. Attempting to find a cure for his condition, Brundle installs a fusion program into the Telepod computer in order to dilute the fly genes in his body with pure human DNA. To her horror, Veronica learns that she is pregnant by Seth, and cannot be sure if the child was conceived before or after his fateful teleportation. After she has a nightmare of giving birth to a giant maggot, a terrified Veronica has Stathis Borans persuade a reluctant doctor to perform an abortion in the middle of the night. However, having learned of the pregnancy, Brundle abducts Veronica before the abortion can be carried out, and begs her to carry the child to term, since it could potentially be the last remnant of his untainted humanity. Veronica sadly refuses, afraid that the child will be a hideous mutant. Meanwhile, Borans breaks into Brundle's lab with a shotgun and comes to Veronica's rescue, but is seriously injured and nearly killed by the almost fully transformed Brundle, who dissolves Borans' left hand and right ankle with his corrosive "vomit-drop" enzyme. Brundle then reveals his desperate, last-ditch plan to Veronica—he will use the three Telepods (the third pod being the original prototype) to fuse himself, Veronica, and their unborn child together into one entity, so they can be the "ultimate family". Veronica frantically resists Brundle's efforts to drag her into Telepod 1 and then accidentally tears off his jaw, triggering his final transformation into a monstrous combination of man and insect. The "Brundlefly" creature traps Veronica inside Telepod 1, then steps into Telepod 2. However, the wounded Borans uses his shotgun to sever the cables connecting Veronica's Telepod to the computer, allowing Veronica to escape unharmed. Breaking out of its own pod just as the fusion process is activated, Brundlefly is gruesomely fused with chunks of metal and other components from Telepod 2. As the mortally-wounded Brundlefly-Telepod fusion creature crawls out of the receiving pod, it silently begs Veronica to end its suffering with Borans' shotgun. Veronica hesitates for a moment, then pulls the trigger, killing the creature that was once Seth Brundle, before falling to her knees and weeping for her deceased lover. Cast *Jeff Goldblum as Seth Brundle *Geena Davis as Veronica "Ronnie" Quaife *John Getz as Stathis Borans *Joy Boushel as Tawny *Leslie Carlson as Dr. Brent Cheevers *George Chuvalo as Marky *David Cronenberg cameos as Gynecologist External links * Category:Films Category:1986 release Category:The Fly series Category:Sci-Fi Films Category:Horror Films